If we had to create a perfect environment for 21st Century Skills, what would it look like?
In a perfect world all of the adults in a student's life would have a firm grasp of 21st Century Skills and be able to model them during their day to day interaction.
Administrators would model 21st Century Skills through their communication with teachers, parents, and community members. They would develop policies and create a building climate that encouraged students to explore their learning environment and accept responsibility for what is learned.
Teachers would easily and comfortably thread 21st Century Skills seamlessly throughout all of their lessons and students would never stop to ponder if using a skill set on a particular day was out of the ordinary.
Parents would have the knowledge and experience to keep their children safe on the internet while easily addressing the moral issues of cyber bullying, and the copyright of digital media.
Community members would serve as role models through their use of 21st Century Skills in community groups and organizations.
The reality however is that perfect rarely happens. But it's not impossible. It will take more than one or two teachers though to make it happen. It takes leadership, initiative and the modeling of desired behavior at the administrative level to change a schools climate to support 21st Century Skills.
With that said, educational leadership cannot simply issue directives that will achieve compliance. Constant directives do little more than damage the very relationships that you rely on to bring 21st Century Skills to the forefront. Instead, establish clear expectations and model the behavior that you desire. You will see much better results.
Who is responsible for 21st Century Skills? All of us and none of us! The responsibility does not lie with one person alone. Educational leaders though must take the initial steps toward bringing this to fruition.
If we had to create a perfect environment for 21st Century Skills, what would it look like?
In a perfect world all of the adults in a student's life would have a firm grasp of 21st Century Skills and be able to model them during their day to day interaction.
Administrators would model 21st Century Skills through their communication with teachers, parents, and community members. They would develop policies and create a building climate that encouraged students to explore their learning environment and accept responsibility for what is learned.
Teachers would easily and comfortably thread 21st Century Skills seamlessly throughout all of their lessons and students would never stop to ponder if using a skill set on a particular day was out of the ordinary.
Parents would have the knowledge and experience to keep their children safe on the internet while easily addressing the moral issues of cyber bullying, and the copyright of digital media.
Community members would serve as role models through their use of 21st Century Skills in community groups and organizations.
The reality however is that perfect rarely happens. But it's not impossible. It will take more than one or two teachers though to make it happen. It takes leadership, initiative and the modeling of desired behavior at the administrative level to change a schools climate to support 21st Century Skills.
With that said, educational leadership cannot simply issue directives that will achieve compliance. Constant directives do little more than damage the very relationships that you rely on to bring 21st Century Skills to the forefront. Instead, establish clear expectations and model the behavior that you desire. You will see much better results.
Who is responsible for 21st Century Skills?
All of us and none of us! The responsibility does not lie with one person alone. Educational leaders though must take the initial steps toward bringing this to fruition.